The Hawaiian gazette., 1887-12-13
San Francisco Letter.

President Cleveland's message to the
Fiftieth Congress of the United States
was delivered on the 9th inst. 1t dealt
exclusively with the tariff question,
protection and reduction of the reve-
nue.. He openly advocates a reduction
In the duties on wool, bUt makes nc
special allusion to the dU ieS on sugar.
IL is generally conceded. however, by
the press of the country, that the first
articles dealt with will be tobacco and
sugar. Republicans and Randall Dem
ocrats insist on the retention of the
tariff except sugar, and more pro-
nOunced protectionists advocate the
entire repeal of the sugar duty and the
payment of bounties to sugar grow
ers. All dispatches and Informal
ton derivable from the East point to
a reduction in the sugar duty of at
least'one cent per pound.
L. Montgomery Mather arrived by
the Australia and speaks hopefully OF
his prospects. 1t is stated that he Will
shortly proceed TO San Diego and Los
Angeles, where the bulk of the travel
arrives from the East.
Your Consul General d. \. McKin-
ley, met with a serious accident about
ten days ago, when alighting from a
street car. He fell heavily to the
ground, receiving considerable iniu-
ries which confined him TO the house
for a time. He is now able to Get
about again with the aid of crutches.
Raw sugar has maintained high
figures in New York, where, though
business is dull, quotations for Cuban
are IS cents.
~ The ship Iroquois, which sailed from
.SSan Francisco on July 22d with cargo
45f raw sugars shipped by the Amer
lean Refinery, arrived at New York on
November 18th leaking. Her cargo
was only insured against total loss.
The striking sugar hands in Louisi-
ana fired on white pickets on NOvem-
Der 2Sd and brisk battle ensued, in
which twenty-five negroes We're killed
and two white men wounded. On the
4th inst. some five hundred negroes
met and denounced the killing of their
brethren, and a demand was made that
Congress and the State authorities
should investigate the trouble. The
Louisiana sugar crop will be the largest
since the war, amounting to 100000
tons
Ralph Smith, who was formerly
editor of the Saturday Press in Homo
lulu, was fatally shot at Redwood
City by man named Powell ON Nov
ember 18th. The cause of the trouble
was paragraph published by Smith
which stated that Powell was cheating
a widow in the payment of her water
taxes. Smith was not armed and
Powell put three bullets into him, the
first one. injuring the spinal column.
Smith fingered in great pain till seven
o'clock on the following morning
and was quite conscious up to the time
of his death. The city press generally
denounces the murder.
Hawaiian Commercial Company's
stock has taken quite a squirt lately,
sales having been effected yesterday
up to SIS 70 with s. asked. The last
annual report showed a loss of Sl22,-
600 in the years business owing TO a
short crop and the low price of sugar. |
Expenses have, however, been mate
rally reduced and the outlook for the |
coming crop is most favorable.
Colonel Spreckels was very much |
interested in the article on Beet Sugar |
Culture that appeared in the Novem- /
Der number of the Planters Monthly. |
1t is stated, however. that he takes |
issue with the deductions arrived at, |
and he claims that he will make much |
greater progress with beet sugar man /
ufacture than Is anticipated. The /
farmers of jacksonville have had eX- /
perience in growing beets before now
and they then melted Sl20 per acre for
their crops, the cost of raising beets \
and delivering them at the mill |
only TO - cents per ton.
Such lively recollections had they of
these good paying crops that, at
meeting held there last night, the
farmers and residents of tNatsonville
Put their hands in their pockets and
subscribed a sum of $4,000 whereWith
to purchase the site for the proposed
beet factory, and they will make Il
deed of gift of the property to the
Western Beet Sugar Company. The
output from this mill viii be, in Mr..
opinion, 5000 tons of sugar
during the season of 1883. But the
farmers have become so enthused that
the capacity of the mill will be
to 700 tons of beets every
twentv-four hours for the season of
1889. By that time Mr.. Spreckels
states that there will be at least 10
mills in operation with an annual out
nut aggregating $4,000 tons of sugar.
This lumber has already been ar
ranged for, the contracts having been
let for the machinery. 1t lis confidently
expected that sites for the mills Will
also be given in other localities, and
have already been given,
in over twenty places, that the farm
ers will grow the requisite quantity of
eeets. People in Kansas City have
sIso written to Mr.. Spreckels asking
him to erect factories in that neigh
borhood. one inducement being that
the price of coal j. only 10 cents per
ton.
Lee Merriweather, Z. 5. Labor Com
missioner, who has Just returned from
1 trip to the Islands, gave the press
some correct information about the
laborers there, but declined to express
an opinion as to the efficacy Of the la
Dor contract system.
Your financial matters attract atten-
ton in SAN Francisco, especially at
-, hands of Tho Chronicle which in !